Last Friday was Day 4 of the ongoing protests in Egypt, where tens of thousands Egyptians took to the streets to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. As the situation reached a flash point, with a mounting death toll and Egyptian tanks in the streets of Cairo, President Obama maintained his silence. Well, not quite. He did Twitter, by proxy.

Around noon Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a 22 word statement on Twitter: “Very concerned about violence in Egypt – government must respect the rights of the Egyptian people & turn on social networking and internet.” The White House also informed the media that Obama had received a 40 minute briefing on the situation. Phew!

After the U.S. markets tanked Friday, a full 4 days after the beginning of the Egyptian crisis, Obama finally addressed the nation. As usual, our president first absolved himself of any blame, stating that if only Egypt has instituted the reforms Obama had been suggesting for the last 2 years, the crisis could have been averted. He then went on to make a bold statement about human rights, “…and the US will stand up for them – everywhere.” Period.

By Saturday, the uprising in Egypt had spread to other countries, with waves of Arab protests in Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen. Saturday night, Obama partied. “The Washington A-List was out in force Saturday night at the farewell party for senior adviser David Axelrod, with a roster of guests featuring Cabinet secretaries, big shot journos and Obama.”

On Sunday, with the protests turning into a conflagration, the only word from the White House was that Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, was heading to Haiti to “mediate the political crisis.” That’s right, Haiti.

As Morgan writes, “Obama’s 3 am moment has come. And gone. Obama was noticeably AWOL. America is now officially bereft of leadership, at least until the latest polls come in.”

All of which is yet another reminder of which candidate the infamous 3:00 AM moment ad best promoted, albeit unintentionally:

3 Comments, 3 Threads

1.
John

Ironically, if the situation in Egypt does turn into a disaster, it will be for the opposite reason as Iran turned into a disaster for Carter. Jimmy tried to micro-manage the situation and managed to get his handprints over both the initial efforts to prop up the Shah and then his efforts to get him out; every side had a reason to hate him and treat him like a buffoon after that. Obama is going to get in trouble by voting “present” for so long that the U.S. is merely balast in the boat of Egyptian discontent with the Mubarak regime.

The latter option in Obama’s mind may give him more credibility with the new regime if Mubarak falls and Suleman does not take his place. But that’s the same delusion he and his group had when they took over and believed the world would love America just because Bush was no longer in office. The Muslim Broterhood is perfectly capable of hating Obama with the same passion that the Revolutionary Guard hated Carter, which may or may not be the president’s too-late wake-up call after failing to answer the phone at 3 a.m. (my guess is Team Obama won’t get it at least until the American people start to call, yelling about why their gasoline now costs $5 a gallon).

Obama voted “present” 100+ times as a member of the Illinois State Senate, a place where it is now apparent the only real decision to be made was between spending a lot more money and a HELLUVA lot more money. Why the hell did anyone think he would be any different as president?